CLIENT PROFILE
Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE) is a policyholder-owned insurer serving high net worth individuals and families. They offer a comprehensive, customizable suite of products covering a wide range of high-value assets including homes, art, and watercraft. Founded by some of the most knowledgeable and experienced professionals in the industry, they combine experience, insight and intuitive perspective to deliver exceptional value and customer satisfaction.
THE SITUATION
When Pure transitioned from an all-in-one accounts payable system to Intacct’s financial management and accounting platform in May 2013, their goal was optimize their processes as much as possible—and that included check fraud prevention. But Intacct’s solution doesn’t come with an out-of-the-box positive pay component, posing a challenge to Pure’s accounting team.
“As an insurance company, we cut hundreds of checks all day, every day, from insurance claims and broker commissions to A/P trade vouchers and refund checks,” explains John Burd, Pure’s Accounting Group Manager. “And in the wake of a catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina,” he adds, “we may be cutting thousands of checks per day, working with numerous companies and countless bank accounts. We simply have to make sure the appropriate payee is cashing each check.”
Aside from securing fraud control, attaining administrative automation was a key objective in their system rollout. They were looking for a hands-off solution to avoid the headaches of manual processing. “Why should a person spend a half hour per day putting positive pay files together if an automatic system can do the work?” asks Burd.
Having built and customized a fully automated positive pay system on their legacy platform, Burd’s team knew they had the option to develop one on their own. “We kind of lucked out!” Burd says. “We found that Wipfli offered a full solution that integrates with Intaccts Case Management Module. It’s built on Inacct’s Platform Services,” Burd continues, “so PositivePay gave us a smooth transition for our positive pay functionality we needed.”
THE STRATEGY
Wipfli was engaged in January to ensure PositivePay was part of Pure’s initial May launch. “It worked immediately,” Burd reports. “Other than taking about a half hour to see how things were configured, we haven’t touched it since it went live.” In fact, Burd reveals that one of the easiest parts of their implementation was working with Wipfli. “Their support has been wonderful,” he says. “Whenever we have changes from a vendor, they respond quickly.”
An unexpected benefit of their new PositivePay process is the elimination of manual check void procedure— and associated costs. “We had no idea we’d save money by not doing check voids,” Burd explains. “With our high volume of checks, and at $35 a piece, our costs were almost immediately offset.”
What’s more, PositivePay has streamlined Pure’s monthly closing process, helping reduce employees’ workload and stress to try and watch and manipulate. “There’s nothing to do—it just works,” says Burd. “The best thing about it is we don’t have to think about it—it sits in the background and does it job. We got what we paid for!”
Key requirements include:
- Automate positive pay check fraud protection process
- Keep key controls in place
- Integrate with Intacct’s platform
Key Challenges:
- The solution needed to seamlessly integrate—and simultaneously deploy—with their new Intacct accounts payable solution
WHAT WERE THE RESULTS?
PositivePay has brought Pure worry-free, hands-off functionality, which saves money by eliminating need to do check voids. Pure was able to reduce employee workload and stress during the monthly close process, which led to a quickly-realized ROI.
